Page 79 - The Story of My Lif

Chapter XVIII

In October, 1896, I entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, to be
prepared for Radcliffe.

When I was a little girl, I visited Wellesley and surprised my friends by the
announcement, “Some day I shall go to college—but I shall go to Harvard!”
When asked why I would not go to Wellesley, I replied that there were only girls

there. The thought of going to college took root in my heart and became an
earnest desire, which impelled me to enter into competition for a degree with
seeing and hearing girls, in the face of the strong opposition of many true and
wise friends. When I left New York the idea had become a fixed purpose; and it
was decided that I should go to Cambridge. This was the nearest approach I
could get to Harvard and to the fulfillment of my childish declaration.

At the Cambridge School the plan was to have Miss Sullivan attend the classes
with me and interpret to me the instruction given.

Of course my instructors had had no experience in teaching any but normal

pupils, and my only means of conversing with them was reading their lips. My
studies for the first year were English history, English literature, German, Latin,
arithmetic, Latin composition and occasional themes. Until then I had never
taken a course of study with the idea of preparing for college; but I had been
well drilled in English by Miss Sullivan, and it soon became evident to my
teachers that I needed no special instruction in this subject beyond a critical
study of the books prescribed by the college. I had had, moreover, a good start in
French, and received six months’ instruction in Latin; but German was the
subject with which I was most familiar.

In spite, however, of these advantages, there were serious drawbacks to my